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Association asks why the European Parliament deals with the Macedonian language and identity

Photo: archive

The European Commission’s reports on North Macedonia from 2023 and 2024 do not contain any references to a ''Macedonian identity'' or ''Macedonian language''. This raises the question: what necessitates the inclusion of these categories in the 2025 report of the European Parliament? That is the question posed by the association ''Descendants of the Refugees and Migrants from the Territory of the Republic of North Macedonia and Friends''.

On July 1, the association's co-chairs, Professor Trendafil Mitev, Associate Professor Spas Tashev and Iliya Stoyanovski, sent a letter to David McAllister, Chair of the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee. The association also asks whether there is any other act of the European Parliament that recognizes or mention any identities. ''If such documents exist, what has required this mention/recognition and what are the legal consequences of such a mention in an official EP document?’’, the association asks.

The inquiry comes after the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) adopted a report on the progress of Skopje on its path towards EU membership that contains formulations on ''Macedonian identity'' and ''Macedonian language''. AFET refused to accept the proposed explanation "modern" (meaning contemporary) before "Macedonian identity" and "Macedonian language.". The vote on the report in the plenary session is still pending. 


Edited by Ivo Ivanov
Published and translated by Kostadin Atanasov
Photo: archive


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